Abstract

While secularization as a process of separating the sacred from the profane is a positive phe- nomenon, it has a negative meaning when it completely eliminates the sacred element from life (secularism). The latter understanding influences the approach to the human body, leading to the perception of a human being as an intricate machine. As a result, the ethics based on human dignity loses its roots. Lack of any ontological insight into the human person impacts the attitude towards the individual and leads to a situation where everything that modern medicine has to offer can be considered as a subject of trade. Patients acting as consumers and economic rationalism (Weber) put medicine under strong pressure both from such consumers and commercial institutions. This situa- tion has numerous practical implications, mostly related to the fact that many activities are underta- ken not for the benefit of the individual, but for profit. This problem can be solved by postulating the return to an adequate concept of the human being as an individual whose value is rooted in his or her dignity.